Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Heel, Heal Thyself!

Here’s a shocking fact: Bodies heal themselves! Imagine that. I’m witnessing it right now, as my “repurposed” foot, aka, bunion-free and straight once more, heals. I took away the heavy covering to monitor the progress. The bruising from the nerve block injections has gone from deep purple to sickly yellow. The stitches are hidden beneath the bandages, but my glimpse of them last Wednesday showed the skin was closing nicely. All my body needed was good nutrition and no stress. But healing is what bodies are supposed to do, right? The way nature intended?

So why should it come as a surprise to medical specialists that the body can actually make tumors go away? Or fight off flu without vaccines? All living organisms are given the necessary tools to stay alive. It’s called survival. So I was absolutely stunned to read the following article, not because the woman’s deadly cancer went away without doctor intervention, but because the doctors wondered if maybe the immune system was behind the cure. Ya think?

So instead of using poisons to kill all the cancer cells, which also kills the immune system, what if the medical mindset was to build up the immune system to make it strong enough to do its job? That doesn’t seem like a stretch, does it? There are wonderful “super” foods that are known to build strong immune systems, along with sunshine or vitamin D supplements. What if people were put on that regimen first, instead of chemo?

Oh, wait. I keep forgetting. No money in nutrition. I mean, think about it. If we actually could prevent or cure cancer with food, sun and exercise, what would happen to all those treatment centers? All those expensive DRUGS? All the oncologists? Tens of thousands of people would be without jobs. You know that won't happen.

Still, wouldn’t it be fantastic if we knew that our bodies could kill off any cell that decided to go haywire? What a relief it would be.

The positive note in that article, by the way, which I do hope you’ll read, was that in the UK, at least, they will be looking into harnessing the power of the immune system. Maybe there’s some hope for us after all.